I hated my job. For over a decade I’d worked as either an independent web developer or part of an engineering team, depending on the year. My final stop in Corporate America was a cubicle where my skills went largely unused. I needed a change of pace and I quit. Following a dream of opening…
What if I were to propose to you that it is possible to live life without limits? What if I were to say to you that you can do something extraordinary? What if you knew that you can move past your own shortcomings? Well, I’d be telling you a partial truth. Each one of us…
I grew up on a small farm in lower mid-Michigan. I am the oldest of seven children and was homeschooled from second grade until I started college. Until my first day at Jackson Community College in the summer of 2006 at the age of eighteen, my world consisted of little else besides what existed within…
I could start with a cliché. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. But that would be wrong. WordPress has been big for me. It’s become a way a life. It changed the direction of my career. It fits nicely with my values of discovery, lifelong learning, of always moving ahead and never looking…
WordPress has changed my career. It has helped me achieve financial and personal independence. It has given me confidence and notoriety. It has enabled me to travel the country. It has completely changed my home, my friendships, my romantic relationships. It has transformed my entire life. But let me back up a minute. Ever since…
48. After 25 years in the working world as a showroom manager, office manager and doing IT helpdesk and purchasing work, I was at a crossroads. I’d stopped taking care of a husband years earlier, my kids were grown and almost out of the house. For the first time in 25 years of working and…
We Should Probably Start at the Beginning I got my first computer in 1995. I used them a lot in school so that I could turn in homework to my sighted teachers, but screen readers were and are expensive so owning one was out of the question for a long time. Screen reader technology for…
It all started with an iPod Touch When I was about 13 years old, I made my first tech purchase, an iPod Touch. This was essentially my first “computer”. I know what you’re thinking, that an iPod Touch is nothing like a computer. But to my 13 year-old mind, this was not the case. I…
When I was first presented with the opportunity to write for HeroPress, my initial reaction was; “Why? What could I possibly say to help people more experienced than I am at WordPress?” You see, I’ve only been using WordPress for a little more than a year, and I only use it for blogging. The only…
I can trace my start with WordPress back to 7th Grade when I was 12. That year at school, I learned a bit about Wikispaces and Wix and I saw something I would want to do and have as a hobby: build websites. As I dabbled with website building more and more, I eventually found…
